wood dye over softwood and wood plugs advice

[waynebrown]

Hi all,
New to this forum, I make a bit of furniture myself every now and then as the need requires and I'm seeking some advice regarding using plugs in softwood.

Currently I have a set of cheap plug cutters which I have used in the past. Straight cut type bought from Aldi's some years ago, anyway, I use an auger bit to cut holes which cuts fairly cleanly, perhaps an auger bit is not good enough, should I use forstner bits?. It looks fine until I apply a wood dye, it catches in the imperfections around the edge of the plug / hole leaving a dark line accentuating the location, not what I wanted!

So, reading on here I see I could buy a nice tapered plug cutter like the Veritas ones, I am thinking tapping them in nice and tight would close up the hole nicely, that and the cutter being very sharp making a nice plug to start with.

Has anyone had experience of using dyes over plugs on softwood and find this works well? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Regards,
Wayne.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Welcome.

I don't have the tapered ones but I find sanding sealer helps hide them somewhat when using stains.

 

[goldeneyedmonkey]

Hi Wayne, A forstner bit would certainly leave a cleaner edge and it may be worthwhile getting a tapered plug cutter, but you can get good results with a standard plug cutter. Just get a few test pieces so that you can get your method down before attempting it on the final piece.

You'll never be able to hide it completely, but you may be able to reduce the signs of the plug.

Good luck with it. _Dan.

 

[Chrispy]

Hi Wayne.
I think half your problem is the stain, it's soaking in around the cut faces ie end grain, try rubbing glue (PVA) all round the hole and the plug to seal the cut faces then tap the plug home, give it a go on a test piece let the glue dry, sand and stain. see if it works.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

As a note on the hole cutter, I use matched size countersink cutters and get good results.

 

[waynebrown]

Thanks for the tips and replies, I will give the advice a try and use pva on some and s/sealer on others and see if this give a better result.
Cheers,
Wayne.